Nepal Infrastructure 
KATHMANDU: Electricity from the 14.9 MW Maya Khola Hydropower Project located in Sankhuwasabha has been connected to the national grid. A power connection has been established through Baneshwar substation of the 220 KV Koshi Corridor transmission line since February 16.
Bharat Thapa, the coordinator of the project, said that energy generated from 7.75 MW unit has been connected to the transmission line. “Electricity produced from another unit will be connected to the transmission system within three to four days ,” said Thapa.
“We wanted to produce electricity from both units simultaneously. But due to problems in the exciter of one unit, both units could not be connected to the the system, as we wanted Now repairing work,” Thapa added.
Although there was a plan to start electricity generation from the project earlier, the technician from the European company, a producer and transporter of electromechanical equipment, took some time to come to Nepal due to the New Year and Christmas holidays.
The promoter company of the project has itself built the structure of 3 km-33 KV transmission line required to Baneshwar substation to connect electricity. The cost of constructing this project was initially estimated to be Rs 2.5 billion.
It is estimated that the cost will increase to about Rs billion due to the problems in the tunnel during the construction of the project. The delay in the construction was caused due to various reasons including the COVID-19 epidemic, and the burden of interest on the loan situation.
Maya Khola is one of the Super Six projects -six hydropower projects awarded by the government to the private sector through competition. The 25 MW Singti and 23.5 MW Solu Khola projects among the Super Six projects have been completed and commissioned. Similarly, Lower Solu, at 82 MW, and Kharekhola, at 24.1 MW, are under construction while the construction of 50 MW of Mewa Khola is yet to begin.
